Java vs. C++

[alivemyst]

the Squawk Java virtual machine was developed at Sun Microsystems labs specifically for use in embedded platforms, and having used it on arm platforms, I must say it runs particularly fast--comparable to writing C++ for the same platforms. This is the case in part because Squawk runs "on the metal", ie without a host operating system to create overhead or incur performance costs. On many platforms, java now runs as fast or faster than C/C++, except when OS-Related I/O functions are called, tending to be the biggest bottleneck. On the metal, this is a non-issue, and the Java interpreter has been really well optimized. Finally, I'd point out that Java's garbage collector is rather nice...

In terms of library support, it is currently looking like the Java abstractions provided by WPI/Sun for robot hardware are rather nice... http://livemyst.comli.com/wpilibj/doc/index.html shows that most robot hardware can be dealt with cleanly through object methods.

There is nothing to say that C++ or Java is bad or should be avoided, its really more of a preference call, not performance.

[bobwrit]

I can't say anything about SJVM, but from what I've noticed and timed on my own computers, java is slower to load, but once it's loaded, it's slightly faster that C/C++. I'm not going to worry too much about the performance of Java on the cRio. Like alivemyst said, It's personal preference as to which one you use.